2011/09/17
Since I last wrote about "social gaming", my term for gaming as a medium for socialization (as opposed to gaming for the sake of gaming), my opinions on the topic have changed quite a bit. For clarification, I am still talking about video gaming, and my goals are still more or less the same: to use video games as a medium or an excuse, really, to bring people together and create social bonds. Video games are already quite successful at doing this- the aim is to make explicit this desired effect and therefore be able to optimize our gaming activities toward this end.
2008/11/18
Last time I wrote about trying to find casual games for medium/large-group social events. We can split multiplayer video gaming into a couple of vaguely-defined categories; I'm going to use the term "casual" or "social gaming" to refer to medium-scale social gatherings that involve video gaming; hardcore gaming, of course, is all about the game; and we might perhaps call the last group "LAN party gaming" to indicate a middle ground between casual gaming and super-intense gaming.
It is for the first category, social gaming, that I suggest a game today: Heroes of Might and Magic III.
2008/09/27
My current question is this: why are there few (if any!) casual/party multiplayer games for the PC? I've been looking around for games that might appeal to more than just me and my hardcore gaming friends, in a (perhaps vain) attempt to create social gatherings through video games/LAN parties. Because everyone here at school has a computer, and networking is already very-well taken care of, it's definitely very plausible. The only things missing now are the games.
